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First of all, sorry if this post is not appropriate for this forum.

I have a habit that every time I read a beautiful article I look at the author's homepage and often find amazing things.

Recently I read a paper of Andrew Hicks and when I opened his homepage I found many links about his invention: Flawless wing mirrors (car mirror).

enter image description here (Image Source)

I would not be surprised if this invention was made by a non-mathematician. His mirror is an amazing invention to me because every day I see it, but didn't know its inventor is a mathematician! Anyway, I want to ask

Question 1: Are there mathematicians who have done outstanding/prominent non-mathematical work like inventions, patents, solving social/economical/etc. problems, papers in these areas, etc.?

Of course, one can say that almost all technology nowadays is based on the work of mathematicians, but I'm asking for specific contributions/innovations.

I want to ask a similar question (Maybe it will be useful for those who are looking for a job!):

Question 2: Which mathematicians are working in non-mathematical areas/companies?

Note: Please add to your answers the name and the work of the mathematician.

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    $\begingroup$ Unabomber has to be #1 on this list. $\endgroup$
    – Piyush Grover
    Commented Aug 20, 2020 at 15:26
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    $\begingroup$ Not clear if it fits, but Emanuel Lasker was a Chess World Champion and a mathematician. I understand that he proved some important results in Commutative Algebra. $\endgroup$
    – Nick S
    Commented Aug 20, 2020 at 15:42
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    $\begingroup$ A good question here would need good delineation of "mathematician" and of "non-mathematical work". In the absence of that, I find this vague and I've downvoted $\endgroup$
    – user44143
    Commented Aug 20, 2020 at 17:32
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    $\begingroup$ The question is too vague. Before 18 century, all mathematicians had non-mathematical jobs since there were no mathematical jobs.So probably you mean modern times. It is also not clear who exactly is counted as a mathematician. $\endgroup$
    – Alexandre Eremenko
    Commented Aug 20, 2020 at 23:24
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    $\begingroup$ @Piyush if we put Unabomber on the list, then we should also make room for André Bloch, mathematician and triple murderer. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/André_Bloch_(mathematician) $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    Commented Aug 20, 2020 at 23:50

82 Answers 82

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In addition to his work in number theory, Carl Størmer made important contributions to the study of the aurora borealis. Here he is conducting an experiment rather far from his blackboard:

Størmer conducting an experiment

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    $\begingroup$ Størmer was awarded the 1922 Janssen Medal of the Paris Academy of Sciences for his work on the aurora. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    Commented Feb 23, 2023 at 0:27
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Gian-Carlo Rota in addition to being an influential combinatorialist was a philosopher, and his philosophical writing was not in the tradition often thought of as being closest to math ('analytic philosophy') but was rather inspired by phenomenology. Apparently this heterodoxy caused some consternation from e.g. his colleagues in the philosophy department at MIT.

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Emily Riehl is a professor of mathematics at Johns Hopkins. She does transformative work in abstract homotopy theory, and has won many grants. She is also a professional Australian rules football player.

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Alexander Esenin-Volpin was a mathematician well-known for his work as a Soviet political dissident.

EDIT: I'm sorry for writing the above so glibly. Among other things, Esenin-Volpin was repeatedly imprisoned or else confined to mental institutions for political reasons -- according to wikipedia he spent 6 years cumulatively in either of those situations. I'd love if somebody more competent than I would write something more informative and fitting.

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    $\begingroup$ The same can be said about Shafarevich too $\endgroup$
    – მამუკა ჯიბლაძე
    Commented Aug 20, 2020 at 20:54
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    $\begingroup$ Can't resist mentioning a non-answer to the question: someone prominent for non-mathematical work who was a maths+physics student at university: nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1970/solzhenitsyn/biographical $\endgroup$
    – Yemon Choi
    Commented Aug 22, 2020 at 15:53
  • $\begingroup$ There was a gulf of difference between Esenin-Volpin and Schafarevich; it'd be simpler to remember Schafarewich as an outstanding mathematician and let's mercifully forget about the rest of his story. $\endgroup$
    – Wlod AA
    Commented Nov 27, 2020 at 19:29
  • $\begingroup$ @WlodAA I did not say that they are similar in any other respect, except that "was a mathematician well-known for his work as a Soviet political dissident" applies to both; maybe it'd be also simpler to remember only part of what we happen to remember, so let's mercifully forget about the rest of it? $\endgroup$
    – მამუკა ჯიბლაძე
    Commented Nov 28, 2020 at 20:08
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René Descartes

Mathematically you're likely to know him for Cartesian geometry.

Philosophers will know him for "Cogito, ergo sum"/"Je pense, donc je suis"

Quoting wikipedia: "Descartes is also widely regarded as one of the founders of modern philosophy." I suspect, as with Russell, people might argue Descartes was a philosopher who did a little mathematics, but ignoring the eponym of Cartesian coordinates is too hard to do.

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    $\begingroup$ Rene Descartes walks into a bar and orders a drink. When he finishes his drink, the bartender asks him if he would like another. Descartes replies, “No, I think not,” and disappears in a puff of logic. $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    Commented Aug 22, 2020 at 1:07
  • $\begingroup$ I think Descartes did more than "a little" Mathematics $\endgroup$
    – Geoff Robinson
    Commented Aug 22, 2020 at 9:38
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    $\begingroup$ I agree, I was just attempting to preempt similar comments to the Bertrand Russell (mathoverflow.net/a/369713/164087) answer. $\endgroup$
    – Anon1759
    Commented Aug 22, 2020 at 13:53
  • $\begingroup$ Descartes did much more than systematising the $(x,y)$-coordinates. It is worthwile to read his essay "La géométrie", where among other things he studies some plane curves and without much overstating prefigures algebraic geometry. $\endgroup$
    – François Brunault
    Commented Aug 16, 2021 at 18:17
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Ruggero Freddi is an Italian mathematics lecturer (holding a PhD) and a former gay pornographic film actor known professionally as Carlo Masi. Here you can read his thesis.

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    $\begingroup$ @C.F.G Sorry, but now you will have to justify and explain to me why exactly do you consider that Freddi or its previous work do not qualify to be answers to what you asked. I pretty much think that it fits in both of your questions (specially the second). He is a mathematician and did "famous" work out of mathematics (unless you think that gay porn is mathematics). There is a dichotomy that I do not understand (in fact, I do but I want to expose you). So either you consider that acting in gay porn is a job or you consider that Freddi is not a mathematician. You will have to be more clear... $\endgroup$
    – Hvjurthuk
    Commented Nov 25, 2020 at 14:20
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    $\begingroup$ @C.F.G I really think that your question is educative and deserve to stay so I will not vote to close. Your question is a place to see that one can become mathematician from other interests and can be a mathematician and something else. However, I think that having a gay porn actor in this wiki is problematic for you. I really hope that you explain yourself better. Your downvote and your comment have not being correctly justified yet and I wish that the problem does not relate to the fact that he is gay or porn actor (sadly I think that it does). It is pretty sad seeing this mentality here. $\endgroup$
    – Hvjurthuk
    Commented Nov 25, 2020 at 14:36
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    $\begingroup$ It's hard to interpret the downvotes on this answer as anything other than narrow-minded prejudice. Would it have been downvoted if Freddi had been a Shakespearean stage actor? $\endgroup$
    – Tom Leinster
    Commented Nov 25, 2020 at 15:24
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    $\begingroup$ There are other people listed who did much of their non-mathematical work before they became mathematicians. This includes Persi Diaconis, Danica McKellar, and Frank Ryan $\endgroup$
    – Deane Yang
    Commented Nov 25, 2020 at 15:36
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    $\begingroup$ @TomLeinster : I did not downvote or upvote. Narrow-minded prejudice is certainly one possible explanation for the downvote. However, I just checked several other answers, and there are downvotes in several cases which cannot be explained by prejudice (in the sense you mean it). The pattern seems to be that if the achievement is either not obviously "prominent and outstanding" or if it deviates too far from "inventions, patents, solving social/economical/etc. problems, papers" then it might attract a downvote. For example, as I write this, I note that Grothendieck attracted a downvote. $\endgroup$
    – Timothy Chow
    Commented Nov 26, 2020 at 0:56
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Benjamin F. Logan was primarily an electrical engineer who spent his career at Bell Labs, but he has 37 publications listed in Mathematical Reviews. His best known mathematical work is his 1977 paper with Larry Shepp, A variational problem for random Young tableaux, in which they proved that if $L_n$ is the expected length of the longest increasing sequence in a randomly chosen permutation of $\{1,\dots,n\}$ then $\lim_{n\to\infty} L_n/\sqrt{n}\ge 2$.

Long ago when I used to go to bluegrass festivals, I sometimes saw a bluegrass fiddler named Tex Logan who played with Peter Rowan then, but had earlier played with such greats as Mike Seeger, Bill Monroe, and The Lilly Brothers & Don Stover. Tex Logan also wrote songs recorded by Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, and Bob Dylan.

It wasn't until many years later that I learned that B. F. Logan and Tex Logan were the same person.

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Another politician would be Éamon de Valera, who graduated in mathematics and taught at various schools (and applied for a professorship, but without success), but then became a rather influential Irish politician.

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Alexander Grothendieck was a political activist and spiritualist.

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  • $\begingroup$ this is what I was looking for $\endgroup$
    – quasi-mathematician
    Commented Sep 2, 2020 at 3:02
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Raymond Smullyan was a

mathematician, magician, concert pianist, logician, Taoist, and philosopher.

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I think, one can add Francesco Faa di Bruno to this list, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Fa%C3%A0_di_Bruno. He is to my knowledge the only beatified mathematician.

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Boris Berezovsky, a Russian oligarch and government official, was a professional mathematician.

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Jerry McNerney (Wiki page) is a US congressperson from California, with a PhD in differential geometry.

Nowadays he's more known as a congressman than as a mathematician, but every now and then he will give quick floor speeches about math or mathematicians.

See, e.g., his tribute to Mirzakhani.

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Dutch mathematician Alexander Rinnooy Kan is also a politician and businessman. He used to be a member of the board of directors of ING Group, served as the Chairman of the Social and Economic Council that advises the government, and was a member of the senate.

According to a national newspaper, he was the most influential person in the Netherlands in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

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Daniel Biss received his PhD in mathematics at MIT in 2002, then was an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago until 2008. He won the 1999 Morgan Prize for outstanding research as an undergraduate. However, in 2007, a serious flaw was discovered that destroyed the main results of papers he had published in the Annals of Mathematics and in Advances. He is now a State Senator in Illinois. In this position, he has worked on legislation to "allow for automatic voter registration," to "elect a number of statewide offices by ranked-choice ballot," and on healthcare, among other things.

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The numerical analyst, Manil Suri, is also an accomplished novelist. He has written a trilogy of novels. The first of which, The Death of Vishnu, was long listed for the Booker Prize.

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  • $\begingroup$ I don't understand why this is down voted. He's a quite accomplished mathematician (scholar.google.com/…) and an award winning novelist. Seems to fit well. $\endgroup$
    – Zach H
    Commented Oct 27, 2020 at 20:39
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Tony Scholl is also a bassist with the Cambridge Philharmonic.

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I've seen a couple of mentions of Emanuel Lasker, a former world chess champion. Here's his non-mathematical academic works, which include a play "History of Mankind" cowritten with his brother:

Kampf (Struggle), 1906. Das Begreifen der Welt (Comprehending the World), 1913. Die Philosophie des Unvollendbar (sic; The Philosophy of the Unattainable), 1918. Vom Menschen die Geschichte ("History of Mankind"), 1925 – a play, co-written with his brother Berthold. The Community of the Future, 1940.

In his "Kampf" he foresaw the application of game theory in 20th century social sciences. He also wrote on other games besides chess as well. Here's a list of those books.

Encyclopedia of Games, 1929. Das verständige Kartenspiel (Sensible Card Play), 1929 – English translation published in the same year. Brettspiele der Völker (Board Games of the Nations), 1931 – includes sections about Go and Lasca. Das Bridgespiel ("The Game of Bridge"), 1931.

Also, don't forget Max Euwe. Max Euwe was also world chess champion and president of FIDE (the international chess body). Dr. Euwe wrote on the Thue-Morse sequence and it implying that, according to the rules of chess at the time, a game could be played as an infinite game without resolution under certain circumstances. He taught mathematics at one point and was a professor of computer science at the Universities of Rotterdam and Tillberg.

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    $\begingroup$ I read somewhere that Max Euwe won some kind of amateur boxing title. Is that true? $\endgroup$
    – bof
    Commented Aug 24, 2020 at 1:10
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    $\begingroup$ members.tripod.com/HSK_Chess/euwe.html I'd never heard of this before, but it is true. The link is confirmation. He also didn't play chess professionally, but still won the world championship. $\endgroup$
    – Paul Burchett
    Commented Aug 24, 2020 at 2:04
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    $\begingroup$ It was the amateur boxing championship of Europe that Euwe won. I don't have a year though. $\endgroup$
    – Paul Burchett
    Commented Aug 24, 2020 at 2:14
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Sergio Fajardo, the former mayor of the Colombian city of Medellín, wrote a dozen papers in model theory before switching to politics.

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  • $\begingroup$ Crap, I accidentally duplicated this answer in 2021 $\endgroup$
    – David White
    Commented Jul 9, 2022 at 18:34
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Sergio Fajardo is a mathematician who was also Mayor of Medellin after the death of Pablo Escobar, was Governor of Antioquia (the state that Medellin is in) from 2012–2016, ran for President of Colombia in 2018, and has announced plans to run again for President. In mathematics, he earned his PhD from UW-Madison and was a professor at the Universidad de los Andes and the Universidad Nacional of Colombia.

In politics, he completely revitalized the city of Medellin, building new parks and libraries, and rebranding the city. The Park of Lights is a great example. That park used to be (figuratively) the darkest place in the city. Escobar had complete control of it and any (non-corrupt) police officer who came nearby would be killed. The park contains two of the oldest buildings in the city, and they were full of squatters. Now, the park is full of life, with Colombian bamboo (Guada kindiana), tons of people, and these giant lightsaber-looking lights that run all night. It's never dark there. It's the safest place in the city. The buildings that used to house squatters now house the department of education. Fajardo also built beautiful libraries to serve the poorest neighborhoods of the city, to give children a chance at a life based around something other than drugs. He was named "best Mayor of Medellin" in 2007. Regarding his time as governor, according to Wikipedia

During his administration, Antioquia experienced the best national performance in open government, transparency and investment of oil royalties (according to the National Planning Department and the Anti corruption Office of Colombia). He was named the best governor of the country in 2015 by the organization Colombia Líder.

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Claude Elwood Shannon was also an inventor. I recall he also invented a rocket-powered pair of boots, but I cannot seem to find the source anymore.

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Vladimir Voevodsky. He won a Fields Medal for inventing motivic homotopy theory and proving the Milnor Conjecture and in his later years worked on homotopy type theory.

He was a world-class photographer. This is mentioned in his "in memoriam" by Friedlander and you can also see some of his photos hosted by IAS. On that page, it mentions that his photography was included in a 2011 exhibit. I've heard that some of his photos were published by top magazines, like National Geographic, but I don't know all the details. If anyone else does, please add!

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Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī was a persian polymath of thirteenth century. His contribution to trigonometry includes the plane law of sines. He had a prominent place in the court of Hulagu Khan (a grandson of Genghis Khan and the founder of the Ilkhanate Empire), and benefited from Khan's patronage to found the Maragheh Observatory. The legend even has it that he was influential in persuading Hulagu to siege Baghdad in 1258 which ended the 500 years old Abbasid Caliphate.

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Gunnar Carlsson is a professor at Stanford famous for his work in K-theory, and on the Segal Conjecture in homotopy theory. He is also the President and Founder of the company Ayasdi, described as

A machine intelligence software company that offers a software platform and applications to organizations looking to analyze and build predictive models using big data or highly dimensional data sets. Organizations and governments have deployed Ayasdi's software across a variety of use cases including the development of clinical pathways for hospitals, anti-money laundering, fraud detection, trading strategies, customer segmentation, oil and gas well development, drug development, disease research, information security, anomaly detection, and national security applications.

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Patrick Billingsley, author of two well-known books in probability theory, was also a stage and screen actor.

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    $\begingroup$ Whoa. [Preston & Logan, 1989] $\endgroup$
    – Yemon Choi
    Commented Sep 16, 2020 at 21:19
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Although John Urschel is already mentioned in a comment to the answer about Frank Ryan, I think he deserves his own answer. Urschel was a football player first at Penn State and then with the Baltimore Ravens. He majored in math at Penn State and then, allegedly without the knowledge of the Baltimore Ravens, enrolled in the MIT math PhD program. Urschel will receive his PhD in spring 2021 and already has an impressive list of publications

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  • $\begingroup$ He wasn't a mathematician before or during playing football? $\endgroup$
    – C.F.G
    Commented Nov 25, 2020 at 17:36
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    $\begingroup$ Based on the years of his publications, it appears that he did write research math papers while he was playing football at Penn State and then for the Baltimore Ravens. Given the physical and mental energy, as well as the time needed each week to prepare for a football game, this is quite remarkable. $\endgroup$
    – Deane Yang
    Commented Nov 25, 2020 at 18:34
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Merely meant as an interesting and amusing fact. People are not born as mathematicians. At the age of 14, long time before his mathematical career and winning the Fields medal, Wendelin Werner played a role in 'The Passerby' at the side of Romy Schneider. She died a few weeks after the movie premiere.

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  • $\begingroup$ "People are not born as mathematicians." -- Some do. $\endgroup$
    – Wlod AA
    Commented Nov 27, 2020 at 19:41
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    $\begingroup$ We disagree. That's fine. $\endgroup$
    – Tobsn
    Commented Nov 28, 2020 at 9:51
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Art Benjamin is a professor of mathematics at Harvey Mudd College, with more than 100 publications. He is also an accomplished magician and was the 1997 American Backgammon Tour Player of the Year.

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Baruch Spinoza was a mathematician, philosopher, and physicist "involved in important optical investigations of the day." His masterpiece, The Ethics, is "written with a forbidding mathematical structure modeled on Euclid's geometry." He was an early Enlightenment thinker of the Dutch Golden Age.

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Alan Turing is a mathematician famous for his contributions to the foundations of computer science, for being a codebreaker in WW2, and for being persecuted by the UK government for being homosexual. Readers have probably heard of the Turing test in artificial intelligence. I would argue that his contributions to computer science don't count as "non-mathematical work" but that his contributions to biology do. For example, his paper The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis is highly cited and is the reason the name "Turing patterns" is used to describe zebrafish embryos.

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